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TOMMY’S CHANGE OF HEART 


* 1 Sts l S 



Some cut trees, some hauled them to the dam 


THE WISHING-STONE STORIES 


Tommy’s Change 
of Heart 

By 

THORNTON YW BURGESS 

0 

ILLUSTRATED BY 
HARRISON CADY 


PUBLISHERS 

Grosset & Dunlap 


NEW YORK 


COPYRIGHT, 1915 , 1921 , 

BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 








PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

All Rights Reserved 
Tommy's Change of Heart 


-n*r) 

s n 


\JT: . J ly 

puoli fc. 

Co %-z^! 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I How It Happened That 

Reddy Fox Gained a Friend 1 

II Tommy Becomes a Furry 

Engineer 32 

III Why Tommy Took Up 

All His Traps 60 


IV Tommy Learns What It Is Like 
To Be a Bear 


91 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Some cut trees , some hauled them 

to the dam frontispiece 

Then he ran . How he did run! 10 

“Come on” said Reddy . “We’ll have 
one of those chucks” 11 


It was playtime for little muskrats . . 70 

Tommy went calling on his neighbors 71 


For a long time Mother Bear sat 

motionless 102 

Another shooting pain in one ear 

brought another squeal 103 


CHAPTER ONE 

HOW IT HAPPENED THAT REDDY FOX 
GAINED A FRIEND 

I T was funny that Tommy never 
could pass that gray stone without 
sitting down on it for a few minutes. 
It seemed as if he just couldn’t, that was 
all. It had been a favorite seat ever 
since he was big enough to drive the 
cows to pasture and go after them at 
night. It was just far enough from home 
for him to think that he needed a rest 
when he reached it. You know a grow- 
ing boy needs to rest often, except when 


2 tommy’s change of heart 
he is playing. He used to take all his 
troubles there to think them over. The 
queer part of it is he left a great many 
of them there, though he didn’t seem 
to know it. If Tommy ever could have 
seen in one pile all the troubles he had 
left at that old gray stone, I am afraid 
that he would have called it the trouble- 
stone instead of the wishing-stone. 

It was only lately that he had begun 
to call it the wishing-stone. Several 
times when he had been sitting on it, 
he had wished foolish wishes and they 
had come true. At least, it seemed as 
if they had come true. They had come 
as true as he ever wanted them to. He 
was thinking something of this kind now 
as he stood idly kicking at the old stone. 

Presently he stopped kicking at it, 
and, from force of habit, sat down on it. 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 3 

It was a bright, sunshiny day, one of 
those warm days that sometimes hap- 
pen right in the middle of winter, as 
if the weather-man had somehow got 
mixed and slipped a spring day into the 
wrong place in the calendar. 

From where he sat, Tommy could 
look over to the Green Forest, which 
was green now only where the pine-trees 
and the hemlock-trees and the spruce- 
trees grew. All the rest was bare and 
brown, save that the ground was white 
with snow. He could look across the 
white meadow-land to the Old Pasture, 
where in places the brush was so thick 
that, in summer, he sometimes had to 
hunt to find the cows. Now, even from 
this distance, he could trace the wind- 
ings of the cow-paths, each a ribbon of 


4 tommy’s change of heart 
spotless white. It puzzled him at first. 
He scowled at them. 

“When the whole thing is covered 
with snow, it ought to be harder to see 
those paths, but instead of that it is 
easier,” he muttered. “It isn’t reason- 
able!” He scowled harder than ever, 
but the scowl wasn’t an unpleasant one. 
You know there is a difference in scowls. 
Some are black and heavy, like ugly 
thunder-heads, and from them flashes of 
anger are likely to dart any minute, just 
as the lightning darts out from the thun- 
der-heads. Others are like the big 
fleecy clouds that hide the sun for a min- 
ute or two, and make it seem all the 
brighter by their passing. 

There are scowls of anger and scowls 
of perplexity. It was a scowl of the lat- 
ter kind that wrinkled Tommy’s fore- 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 5 

head now. He was trying to under- 
stand something that seemed to him 
quite beyond common sense. 

“It isn’t reasonable !” he repeated. “I 
ought not to be able to see ’em at all. 
But I do. They stick out like ” 

No one will ever know just what they 
stuck out like, for Tommy never finished 
that sentence. The scowl cleared and 
his freckled face fairly beamed. He 
had made a discovery all by himself, 
and he felt all the joy of a discoverer. 
Perhaps you will think it wasn’t much, 
but it was really important, so far as it 
concerned Tommy, because it proved 
that Tommy was learning to use his eyes 
and to understand what he saw. He 
had reasoned the thing out, and when 
anybody does that, it is always impor- 


tant. 


6 tommy’s change of heart 

“Why, how simple!” exclaimed 
Tommy. “Of course I can see those old 
paths ! It would be funny if I couldn’t. 
The bushes break through the snow on 
all sides, but where the paths are, there 
is nothing to break through, and so they 
are perfectly smooth and stand right out. 
Queer I never noticed that before. 
Hello! what’s that?” 

His sharp eyes had caught sight of a 
little spot of red up in the Old Pasture. 
It was moving, and, as he watched it, 
it gradually took shape. It was Reddy 
Fox, trotting along one of those little 
white paths. Apparently, Reddy was 
going to keep an engagement some- 
where, for he trotted along quite as if 
he were bound for some particular place 
and had no time to waste. 

“He’s headed this way, and, if I keep 


HOW REDDY FOX GAIN ED A FRIEND 7 

still, perhaps he’ll come close,” thought 
Tommy. 

So he sat as still as if he were part of 
the old wishing-stone itself. Reddy 
Fox came straight on. At the edge of 
the Old Pasture he stopped for a minute 
and looked across to the Green Forest, 
as if to make sure that it was perfectly 
safe to cross the Green Meadows. Evi- 
dently he thought it was, for he resumed 
his steady trot. If he kept on the way 
he was headed he would pass very near 
to the wishing-stone and to Tommy. 

Just as he was half-way across the 
meadows, Chanticleer, Tommy’s prize 
Plymouth Rock rooster, crowed over 
in the farmyard. Instantly Reddy 
stopped with one black paw uplifted 
and turned his head in the direction of 
the sound. Tommy could imagine the 


8 tommy’s change of heart 
hungry look in that sharp, crafty face. 
But Reddy was far too wise to think of 
going up to the farmyard in broad day- 
light, and in a moment resumed his 
journey. 

Nearer and nearer he came, until he 
was passing not thirty feet away. How 
handsome he was! His beautiful red 
coat looked as if the coldest wind never 
could get through it. His great plume 
of a tail, black toward the end and just 
tipped with white, was held high to keep 
it out of the snow. His black stockings, 
white vest, and black-tipped ears gave 
him a wonderfully fine appearance. 
Quite a dandy is Reddy Fox, and he 
looked it. 

He was almost past when Tommy 
squeaked like a mouse. Like a flash 
Reddy turned, his sharp ears cocked for- 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 9 

ward, his yellow eyes agleam with hun- 
ger. There he stood, as motionless as 
Tommy himself, eagerness written in 
every line of his face. It was very clear 
that, no matter how important his busi- 
ness in the Green Forest was, he didn’t 
intend knowingly to pass anything so 
delicious as a meadow-mouse. Again 
Tommy squeaked. Instantly Reddy 
took several steps toward him, looking 
and listening intently. A look of doubt 
crept into his eager face. That old 
gray stone didn’t look just as he remem- 
bered it. For a long minute he stared 
straight at Tommy. Then a puff of 
wind fluttered the bottom of Tommy’s 
coat, and perhaps at the same time it car- 
ried to Reddy that dreaded man smell. 

Reddy almost turned a back-somer- 
sault in his hurry to get away. Then he 


10 tommy’s change of heart 
ran. How he did run! In almost no 
time at all he had reached the Green 
Forest and vanished from Tommy’s 
sight. Quite without knowing it 
Tommy sighed. “My, how handsome 
he is!” You know Tommy is freckle- 
faced and rather homely. “And gee, 
how he can run !” he added admiringly. 
“It must be fun to be able to run like 
that. It might be fun to be a fox any- 
how. I wonder what it feels like. I 
wish I were a fox.” 

If he had remembered where he was, 
perhaps Tommy would have thought 
twice before wishing. But he had for- 
gotten. Forgetting was one of Tommy’s 
besetting sins. Hardly had the words 
left his mouth when Tommy found that 
he was a fox, red-coated, black-stock- 







u\ * 




Then he ran. How he did run! 



“Come on,” said Reddy. “We'll have one of 
those chucks” 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 11 

inged — the very image of Reddy him- 
self. 

And with that change in himself 
everything else had changed. It was 
summer. The Green Meadows and the 
Green Forest were very beautiful. 
Even the Old Pasture was beautiful. 
Rut Tommy had no eyes for beauty. 
All that beauty meant nothing to him 
save that now there was plenty to eat 
and no great trouble to get it. Every- 
where the birds were singing, but if 
Tommy heeded at all, it was only to 
wish that some of the sweet songsters 
would come down on the ground where 
he could catch them. 

Those songs made him hungry. He 
knew of nothing he liked better, next to 
fat meadow-mice, than birds. That re- 
minded him that some of them nest on 


12 tommy’s change of heart 
the ground, Mrs. Grouse for instance. 
He had little hope that he could catch 
her, for it seemed as if she had eyes in the 
back of her head ; but she should have a 
family by this time, and if he could find 
those youngsters — the very thought 
made his mouth water, and he started 
for the Green Forest. 

Once there, he visited one place after 
another where he thought he might find 
Mrs. Grouse. He was almost ready to 
give up and go back to the Green Mead- 
ows to hunt for meadow-mice when a 
sudden rustling in the dead leaves made 
him stop short and strain his ears. 
There was a faint “ kwitt ,” and then all 
was still. Tommy took three or four 
steps and then — could he believe his 
eyes? — there was Mrs. Grouse flutter- 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 13 
ing on the ground just in front of him! 
One wing dragged as if broken. 

Tommy made a quick spring and then 
another. Somehow Mrs. Grouse just 
managed to get out of his way. But she 
couldn’t fly. She couldn’t run as she 
usually did. It was only luck that she 
had managed to evade him. Very 
stealthily he approached her as she lay 
fluttering among the leaves. Then, 
gathering himself for a long jump, he 
sprang. 

Once more he missed her, by a mere 
matter of inches it seemed. The same 
thing happened again and still again. 
It was maddening to have such a good 
dinner so near and yet not be able to get 
it. Then something happened that 
made Tommy feel so foolish that he 
wanted to sneak away. With a roar 


14 tommy’s change of heart 

of wings Mrs. Grouse sailed up over the 
tree-tops and out of sight! 

“Huh! Haven’t you learned that 
trick yet?” said a voice. 

Tommy turned. There was Reddy 
Fox grinning at him. “What trick?” 
he demanded. 

“Why, that old Grouse was just fool- 
ing you!” replied Reddy. “There was 
nothing the matter with her. She was 
just pretending. She had a whole fam- 
ily of young ones hidden close by the 
place where you first saw her. My, but 
you are easy!” 

“Let’s go right back there!” cried 
Tommy. 

“No use. Not the least bit,” declared 
Reddy. “It’s too late. Let’s go over 
on the meadows and hunt for mice.” 

Together they trotted over to the 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 15 

Green Meadows. All through the 
grass were private little paths made by 
the mice. The grass hung over them so 
that they were more like tunnels than 
paths. Reddy crouched down by one 
which smelled very strong of mouse. 
Tommy crouched down by another. 

Presently there was the faint sound 
of tiny feet running. The grass moved 
ever so little over the small path Reddy 
was watching. Suddenly he sprang, and 
his two black paws came down together 
on something that gave a pitiful squeak. 
Reddy had caught a mouse without even 
seeing it. He had known just where 
to jump by the movement of the grass. 
Presently Tommy caught one the same 
way. Then, because they knew that 
the mice right around there were fright- 


16 tommy’s change of heart 
ened, they moved on to another part of 
the meadows. 

“I know where there are some young 
woodchucks,” said Tommy, who had un- 
successfully tried for one of them that 
very morning. 

“Where 1 ?” demanded Reddy. 

“Over by that old tree on the edge of 
the meadow,” replied Tommy. “It isn’t 
the least bit of use to try for them. They 
don’t go far enough away from their 
hole, and their mother keeps watch all 
the time. There she is now.” 

Sure enough, there sat old Mrs. 
Chuck, looking, at that distance, for all 
the world like a stake driven in the 
ground. 

“Come on,” said Reddy. “We’ll 
have one of those chucks.” 

But instead of going toward the wood- 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 17 

chuck home, Reddy turned in quite the 
opposite direction'. Tommy didn’t 
know what to make of it, but he said 
nothing, and trotted along behind. 
When they were where Reddy knew that 
Mrs. Chuck could no longer see them, he 
stopped. 

“There’s no hurry,” said he. “There 
seems to be plenty of grasshoppers here, 
and we may as well catch a few. When 
Mrs. Chuck has forgotten all about us, 
we’ll go over there.” 

Tommy grinned to himself. “If he 
thinks we are going to get over there 
without being seen, he’s got something to 
learn,” thought Tommy. But he said 
nothing, and, for lack of anything better 
to do, he caught grasshoppers. After a 
while, Reddy said he guessed it was 
about time to go chuck-hunting. 


18 tommy’s change of heart 

“You go straight over there,” said he. 
“When you get near, Mrs. Chuck will 
send all the youngsters down into their 
hole and then she will follow, only she’ll 
stay where she can peep out and watch 
you. Go right up to the hole so that 
she will go down out of sight, and then 
wait there until I come. I’ll hide right 
back of that tree, and then you go off as 
if you had given up trying to catch any 
of them. Go hunt meadow-mice far 
enough away so that she won’t be afraid. 
I’ll do the rest.” 

Tommy didn’t quite see through the 
plan, but he did as he was told. As he 
drew near Mrs. Chuck, she did just as 
Reddy said she would — sent her young- 
sters down underground. Then, as he 
drew nearer, she followed them. 

Tommy kept on right up to her door- 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 19 

step. The smell of those chucks was 
maddening. He was tempted to try to 
dig them out, only somehow he just felt 
that it would be of no use. He was still 
half minded to try, however, when 
Reddy came trotting up and flattened 
himself in the long grass behind the 
trunk of the tree. 

Tommy knew then that it was time 
for him to do the rest of his part. He 
turned his back on the woodchuck home, 
and trotted off across the meadow. He 
hadn’t gone far when, looking back, he 
saw Mrs. Chuck sitting up very straight 
and still on her doorstep, watching him. 
Not once did she take her eyes from him. 
Tommy kept on, and presently began 
to hunt for meadow-mice. But he kept 
one eye on Mrs. Chuck, and presently 
he saw her look this way and that, as if 


20 tommy’s change of heart 

to make sure that all was well. Then 
she must have told her children that 
they could come out to play once more, 
for out they came. By this time Tommy 
was so excited that he almost forgot that 
he was supposed to be hunting mice. 

Presently he saw a red flash from be- 
hind the old tree. There was a fright- 
ened scurry of little chucks and old Mrs. 
Chuck dove into her hole. Reddy 
barked joyfully. Tommy hurried to 
join him. Reddy had been quite as suc- 
cessful as he had boasted he would be, 
and was grinning. 

“Didn’t I tell you we’d have chuck 
for dinner*?” said Reddy. “What one 
can’t do, two can.” 

After that, Tommy and Reddy often 
hunted together, and Reddy taught 
Tommy many things. So the summer 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 21 

passed with plenty to eat and nothing 
to worry about. Not once had he known 
that terrible fear — the fear of being 
hunted — which is so large a part of the 
lives of Danny Meadow Mouse and 
Peter Rabbit, and even Chatterer the 
Red Squirrel. 

Instead of being afraid, he was feared. 
He was the hunter instead of the hunted. 
Day and night, for he was abroad at 
night quite as much as by day, he went 
where he pleased and did as he pleased, 
and was happy, for there was nothing 
to worry him. Having plenty to eat, 
he kept away from the homes of men. 
He had been warned that there was dan- 
ger there. 

At last the weather grew cold. There 
were no more grasshoppers. There 
were no more foolish young rabbits or 


22 TOMMY’S CHANGE OF HEART 
woodchucks or grouse, for those who 
had escaped had grown up and were 
wise and smart. Every day it grew 
harder to get enough to eat. The cold 
weather made him hungrier than ever, 
and now he had little time for sun-naps 
or idle play. He had to spend most of 
the time that he was awake hunting. 
He never knew where the next meal was 
coming from, as did thrifty Striped 
Chipmunk, and Happy Jack Squirrel, 
and Danny Meadow Mouse. 

It was hunt, hunt, hunt, and a meal 
only when his wits were sharper than the 
wits of those he hunted. He knew now 
what real hunger was. He knew what 
it was most of the time. So when, late 
one afternoon, he surprised a fat hen 
who had strayed away from the flock be- 
hind the barn of a lonely farm, he 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 23 

thought that never had he tasted any- 
thing more delicious. Thereafter he 
visited chicken-houses and stole many 
fat pullets. To him they were no more 
than the wild birds he hunted, only more 
foolish and so easily caught. 

And then one morning after a success- 
ful raid on a poultry-house, he heard for 
the first time the voices of dogs on his 
trail. He, the hunter, was being 
hunted. At first it didn’t bother him at 
all. He would run away and leave 
them far behind. So he ran, and when 
their voices were faint and far away, 
he lay down to rest. 

But presently he grew uneasy. 
Those voices were drawing nearer. 
Those dogs were following his every 
twist and turn with their noses in his 
tracks, just as he had so often followed 


24 tommy’s change of heart 
a rabbit. For hours he ran, and still 
those dogs followed. He was almost 
ready to drop when he chanced to run 
along in a tiny brook, and, after he left 
that, he heard no more of the dogs that 
day. So he learned that running water 
broke his trail. 

The next day the dogs found his trail 
again, and, as he ran from them through 
a swamp, there was a sudden flash and 
a dreadful noise. Something stung 
him sharply on the shoulder. As he 
looked back, he caught a glimpse of a 
man with something in his hands that 
looked like a stick with smoke coming 
from the end of it. That night, as he 
lay licking his wounds, he knew that 
now he, who had known no fear, would 
never again be free from it — the fear 
of man. 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 2£ 

Little by little he learned how to fool 
and outwit the dogs. He learned that 
water destroyed his scent. He learned 
that dry sand did not hold it. He 
learned to run along stone walls and 
then jump far out into the field and so 
break his trail. He learned that, if he 
dashed through a flock of sheep, the fool- 
ish animals would rush around in aim- 
less fright, and their feet would stamp 
out his trail. These and many other 
sharp tricks he learned, so that after a 
while he had no fear of the dogs. But 
his fear of man grew greater rather than 
less, and was with him at all times. 

So all through the fall he hunted and 
was hunted. Then came the snow, the 
beautiful white snow. All day it fell, 
and when at night the moon came out, 
the earth was covered with a wonderful 


26 tommy's change of heart 
white carpet. Through the Green For- 
est and over the meadows Tommy 
hunted. One lone shivering little 
wood-mouse he dug out of a moldering 
old stump, but this was only a bite. He 
visited one hen-house after another, only 
to find each without so much as a loose 
board by means of which he might get 
in. It was dreadful to be so hungry. 

As if this were not enough, the break- 
ing of the day brought the sound of dogs 
on his trail. ‘Til fool them in short or- 
der," thought he. 

Alas! Running in the snow was a 
very different matter from running on 
the bare ground. One trick after an- 
other he tried, the very best he knew, 
the ones which never had failed before; 
but all in vain. Wherever he stepped 
he left a footprint plain to see. Though 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 27 

he might fool the noses of the dogs, he 
could not fool the eyes of their masters. 

Now one thing he had long ago 
learned, and this was never to seek his 
underground den unless he must, for 
then the dogs and the hunters would 
know where he lived. So now Tommy 
ran and ran, hoping to fool the dogs, 
but not able to. At last he realized 
this, and started for his den. He felt 
that he had to. Running in the snow 
was hard work. His legs ached with 
weariness. His great plume of a tail, 
of which he was so proud, was a burden 
now. It had become wet with the snow 
and so heavy that it hampered and tired 
him. 

A great fear, a terrible fear, filled 
Tommy’s heart. Would he be able to 
reach that snug den in time? He was 


28 tommy’s change of heart 
panting hard for breath, and his legs 
moved slower and slower. The voices 
of the dogs seemed to be in his very 
ears. Glancing back over his shoulder, 
he could see them gaining with every 
jump, the fierce joy of the hunt and the 
lust of killing in their eyes. He knew 
now the feeling, the terror and dreadful 
hopelessness of the meadow-mice and 
rabbits he had so often run down. Just 
ahead was a great gray rock. From it he 
would make one last long jump in an ef- 
fort to break the trail. In his fear he 
quite forgot that he was in plain sight 
now, and that his effort would be use- 
less. 

Up on the rock he leaped wearily, and 
— Tommy rubbed his eyes. Then he 
pinched himself to make quite sure that 
he was really himself. He shivered, 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 2Q 

for he was in a cold sweat — the sweat 
of fear. Before him stretched the snow- 
covered meadows, and away over be- 
yond was the Old Pasture with the 
cow-paths showing like white ribbons. 
Half-way across the meadows, running 
toward him with their noses to the 
ground and making the echoes ring with 
the joy of the hunt, were two hounds. 
A dark figure moving on the edge of the 
Old Pasture caught his eyes and held 
them. It was a hunter. Reddy Fox, 
handsome, crafty Reddy, into whose 
hungry yellow eyes he had looked so 
short a time before, would soon be run- 
ning for his life. 

Hastily Tommy jumped to his feet 
and hurried over to the trail Reddy had 
made as he ran for the Green Forest. 
With eager feet he kicked the snow over 


30 tommy’s change of heart 
those telltale tracks for a little way. 
He waited for those eager hounds, and 
when they reached the place where he 
had broken the trail, he drove them 
away. They and the hunter might pick 
up the trail again in the Green Forest, 
but at least Reddy would have time to 
get a long start of them and a good 
chance of getting away altogether. 

Then he went back to the wishing- 
stone and looked down at it thought- 
fully. “And I actually wished I could 
be a fox!” he exclaimed. “My, but I’m 
glad I’m not ! I guess Reddy has trou- 
ble enough without me making him any 
more. He may kill a lot of innocent 
little creatures, but he has to live, and 
it’s no more than men do.” (He was 
thinking of the chicken dinner he would 
have that day.) “I’m going straight 


HOW REDDY FOX GAINED A FRIEND 31 

over to the Old Pasture and take up that 
trap I set yesterday. I guess a boy’s 
troubles don’t amount to much after 
all. I’m more glad than ever that I’m a 
boy, and — and — well, if Reddy Fox 
is smart enough to get one of my chickens 
now and then, he’s welcome. It must 
be awful to be hungry all the time.” 


CHAPTER TWO 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 

P ADDY THE BEAVER lives in 
the Great Woods far from the 
dwelling-place of man. Often 
and often had Tommy wished that 
Paddy lived in the Green Forest near 
his home that he might make his ac- 
quaintance; for he had read many won- 
derful things about Paddy, and they 
were hard to believe. 

“If I could see ’em for myself, just 
see ’em with my own eyes I could be- 
lieve; but so many things are written 
that are not true that a feller doesn’t 
know what to believe and what not to. 
A feller ought to see things to know that 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 33 

they are so,” said Tommy, as he strolled 
down towards the big gray stone that 
overlooked the Green Meadows. 

“ ’Course it’s easy enough to believe 
that beavers build houses. Muskrats 
do that. I know all about muskrats, 
and I s’pose a beaver’s house is about 
the same thing as a muskrat’s, only big- 
ger and better ; but how any animal can 
cut down a big tree, or build a dam, or 
dig a regular canal is more than I can 
understand without seeing for myself. 
1 wish ” 

Tommy didn’t finish his wish. I sus- 
pect he was going to wish that he could 
go into the Great Woods and hunt for 
Paddy the Beaver. But he didn’t fin- 
ish his wish, because just then a new 
thought popped into his head. You 
know how it is with thoughts. They 


34 tommy’s change of heart 
just pop out from nowhere in the queer- 
est way. It was so now with Tommy. 
He suddenly thought of the wishing- 
stone, the great gray stone just ahead of 
him, and he wondered, if he should sit 
down on it, if he could wish himself into 
a beaver. Always before, when he had 
wished himself into an animal or a bird, 
it was one of those with which he was 
familiar and had seen. This case was 
different. There were no beavers any- 
where near where Tommy lived, and so 
he was a little doubtful. If he could 
wish himself into a beaver, why, he 
could wish himself into anything — a 
lion, or an elephant, or anything else — 
and learn about all the animals, no mat- 
ter where they lived ! 

“Gee!” exclaimed Tommy, and there 
was a queer little catch in his breath, 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 35 
because, you know, it was such a big 
idea. He stood still and slowly rubbed 
the bare toes of one foot up and down 
the other bare brown leg. “Gee !” he ex- 
claimed again, and stared very hard at 
the wishing-stone. “ ’Twon’t do any 
harm to try it, anyway/’ he added. 

So he walked over to the wishing- 
stone and sat down. With his chin in 
his hands and his elbows on his knees he 
stared over at the Green Forest and tried 
to imagine that it was the Great Woods, 
where the only human beings ever seen 
were hunters, or trappers, or lumber- 
men, and where bears, and deer, and 
moose, and wolves lived, and where 
beavers built their homes, and made 
their ponds, and lived their lives far 
from the homes of men. As he stared, 
the Green Forest seemed to change to 


36 tommy’s change of heart 
the Great Woods. “I wish,” said he, 
slowly and dreamily, “I wish that I were 
a beaver.” 

He was no longer sitting on the 
wishing-stone. He was a young beaver 
with a waterproof fur coat, a broad flat 
tail and great chisel-like teeth in the 
front of his jaws, his tools. His home 
was in the heart of the Great Woods, 
where a broad, shallow brook sparkled 
and dimpled, and the sun, breaking 
through the tree-tops, kissed its ripples. 
In places it flowed swiftly, dancing and 
singing over stones and pebbles. Again 
it lingered in deep dark cool holes where 
the trout lay. Farther on, it loafed 
lazily through wild meadows where the 
deer delighted to come. But where 
Tommy was, it rested in little ponds, 
quiet, peaceful, in a dreamy stillness, 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 37 
where the very spirit of peace and hap- 
piness and contentment seemed to 
brood. 

On one side of one of these little 
ponds was the house, a great house of 
sticks bound together with mud and 
turf, the house in which Tommy lived 
with others of his family. It was quite 
the finest beaver-house in all that re- 
gion. But Tommy didn’t think any- 
thing about that. It was summer now, 
the season of play, of having a good 
time without thought of work. It was 
the season of visiting and of exploration. 
In company with some of his relatives 
he made long journeys up and down the 
brook, and even across to other brooks 
on some of which were other beaver col- 
onies and on some of which were no 


38 tommy's change of heart 
signs that beavers ever had worked 
there. 

But when summer began to wane, 
Tommy found that life was not all a 
lazy holiday and that he was expected 
to work. The home settlement was 
rather crowded. There was danger that 
the food supply would not be sufficient 
for so many hungry beavers. 

So it was decided to establish a new 
settlement on one of the brooks which 
they had visited in their summer jour- 
ney, and Tommy was one of a little com- 
pany which, under the leadership of a 
wise old beaver, started forth on a still 
night to found the new colony. He led 
the way straight to one of the brooks 
on the banks of which grew many aspen 
trees, for you must know that the fa- 
vorite food of beavers is the bark of 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 39 

aspens and poplars. It was very clear 
that this wise old leader had taken note 
during the summer of those trees and of 
the brook itself, for the very night of 
their arrival he chose a certain place in 
the brook and announced that there they 
would build their dam. 

“Isn’t it a great deal of work to build 
a dam?” asked Tommy, who knew noth- 
ing about dam-building, the dam at his 
old home having been built long before 
his time. 

“It is. Yes, indeed, it certainly is,” 
replied an old beavei. “You’ll find it 
so before we get this dam built.” 

“Then what’s the use of building it?” 
asked Tommy. “I don’t see the use of 
a dam here anyway. There are places 
where the banks are steep enough and 
the water deep enough for splendid 


40 tommy’s change of heart 
holes in which to live. Then all we’ve 
got to do is to go cut a tree when we are 
hungry. I’m sure I, for one, would 
much rather swim around and have a 
good time.” 

The other looked at him out of eyes 
that twinkled, and yet in a way to make 
Tommy feel uncomfortable. “You are 
young,” said he, “and the prattle of 
young tongues is heedless. What 
would you do for food in winter when 
the brook is frozen? The young think 
only of to-day and the good times of 
to-day, and forget to prepare for the 
future. When you have learned to 
work, you will find that there is in life 
no pleasure so great as the pleasure of 
work well done. Now suppose you let 
us see what those teeth of yours are 
good for, and help cut these alders and 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 41 

haul them over to the place where the 
dam is to be/’ 

Tommy had no reply ready, and so he 
set to work cutting young alders and 
willows as the rest were doing. These 
were floated or dragged down to the 
place chosen for the dam, where the 
water was very shallow, and were laid 
side by side with the big ends pointing 
up stream. Turf, and stones, and mud 
were piled on the brushy ends to keep 
them in place. So the foundations of 
the dam were laid from bank to bank. 
Then more poles were laid on top and 
more turf and mud. Short sticks were 
wedged in between and helped to hold 
the long sticks in place. Tommy grew 
tired of working, but no one else stopped 
and he was ashamed to. 

One of his companions cut a big pop- 


42 tommy’s change of heart 
lar and others helped him trim off the 
branches. This was for food ; and when 
the branches and trunk had been 
stripped of bark, they were floated down 
to the new dam and worked into it, the 
trunk being cut into lengths which could 
be managed easily. Thus nothing went 
to waste. 

So all through the stilly night they 
worked, and, when the day broke, they 
sought the deep water and certain holes 
under the banks wherein to rest. But 
before he left the dam, the wise old 
leader examined the work all over to 
make sure that it was right. 

When the first shadows crept forth 
late the next afternoon, the old leader 
was the first back on the work. One by 
one the others joined him, and another 
night of labor had begun. Some cut 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 43 

trees and saplings, some hauled them 
to the dam, and some dug up turf and 
mud and piled it on the dam. There 
was no talking. Everybody was too 
busy to talk. 

Most of Tommy’s companions had 
helped build dams before and knew just 
what to do. Tommy asked no ques- 
tions, but did as the others did. Slowly 
the dam grew higher, and Tommy no- 
ticed that the brook was spreading out 
into a pool; for the water came down 
faster than it could work its way through 
that pile of poles and brush. Twigs, 
and leaves, and grass floated down from 
the places higher up where the beavers 
were at work, and, when these reached 
the dam, they were carried in amongst 
the sticks by the water and lodged there. 


44 tommy’s change of heart 
helping to fill up the holes and hold the 
water back. 

As night after night the dam grew 
higher and the pool behind it grew 
broader and deeper, Tommy began to 
take pride in his work. He no longer 
thought of play but was as eager as the 
others to complete the dam. The stars 
looked down from the soft sky and twin- 
kled as they saw the busy workers. 

At last the dam was completed, for 
the time being at least. Very thor- 
oughly the wise old leader went all over 
it, inspecting it from end to end; and 
when he was satisfied, he led his band 
to one side of the little pond formed by 
the dam, and there he chose a site for the 
house wherein they would spend the 
winter. 

First a platform of sticks, and mud, 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 45 

and turf was built until it was a few 
inches above the water. Then began 
the raising of the walls, a mass of brush 
and turf until the walls were three feet 
thick and so solid that Jack Frost would 
find it quite useless to try to get inside. 
The roof was in the shape of a rough 
dome and at the top was comparatively 
thin; here little or no mud was used, 
so that there were tiny air-holes, for, 
like all other warm-blooded animals, a 
beaver must breathe. 

Within, was a comfortable room of 
which the platform was the floor. From 
this, two burrows, or tunnels, led down 
on the deep-water side, one of these be- 
ing on a gradual incline, that food sticks 
might the easier be dragged in. The 
entrances to both were at the very bot- 
tom of the pond, where there would be 


46 tommy’s change of heart 
no danger of them being closed by ice 
when the pond should freeze in winter. 
These were the only entrances, so that 
no foe could reach them unless he were 
able to swim under water, and there were 
no such swimmers whom they had cause 
to fear. 

When the house was finished, Tommy 
thought that their labors would be at an 
end ; and he was almost sorry, for he had 
learned to love work. But no sooner 
was the house completed than all the 
beavers went lumbering. Yes, sir, that 
is just what they did. They went lum- 
bering just as men do, only they cut the 
trees for food instead of for boards. 

They began at the edge of a little 
grove of aspens to which the pond 
now nearly extended. Sitting on his 
haunches with his broad tail for a seat 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 47 

or a prop, as his fancy pleased, each lit- 
tle woodsman grasped the tree with his 
hands and bit into the trunk, a bite above 
and a bite below, and then with his 
teeth pried out the chip between the two 
bites, exactly as a man with an ax would 
cut. It was slow hard work cutting out 
a chip at a time in this way, but sooner 
or later the tree would begin to sway. 
A bite or two more, and it would begin 
to topple over. 

Then the little workman would thud 
the ground sharply with his tail to warn 
his neighbors to get out of the way, and 
he himself would scamper to a place of 
safety while the tree came crashing 
down. Tommy dearly loved to see and 
hear those trees come crashing to the 
ground. 

No sooner was a tree down than they 


48 tommy’s change of heart 
trimmed off the branches and cut the 
trunk into short lengths. These logs 
they rolled into the water, where, with 
the larger branches, they were floated 
out to deep water close by the house and 
there sunk to the bottom. What for? 
Tommy didn’t have to be told. This 
was the beginning of their food-pile for 
the winter. 

So the days slipped away and the 
great food-pile grew in the pond. With 
such busy workers it did not take long 
to cut all the trees close by the pond. 
The farther away from the water they 
got, the greater the labor of dragging 
and rolling the logs, and also the greater 
danger from lurking enemies. In the 
water they felt wholly safe, but on land 
they had to be always on the watch for 
wolves, and bears, and lynxes. 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 49 

When they had reached the limit of 
safety, the wise old leader called a halt 
to tree cutting and set them all to dig- 
ging. And what do you think it was 
they were digging? Why, a canal! It 
was easier and safer to lead the water 
from the pond to the place where the 
trees grew than to get the logs over land 
t;o the pond. So they dug a ditch, or 
canal, about two and a half feet wide 
and a foot and a half deep, piling the 
rnud up on the banks, until at last it 
reached the place where they could cut 
the trees, and roll the logs into the canal, 
and so float them out to the pond. Then 
the cutting began again. 

Tommy was happy. Never had he 
been more happy. There was some- 
thing wonderfully satisfying in just 
looking at the results of their labor and 


50 tommy’s change of heart 
in feeling that he had had a part in it 
all. Yet his life was not all labor with- 
out excitement. Indeed, it was far 
from it. Had Tommy the Beaver been 
able to remember what as Tommy the 
Boy he had read, he would have felt 
that he was just like those hardy pio- 
neers who built their homes in the wil- 
derness. 

Always, in that great still wilderness, 
death with padded feet and cruel teeth 
and hungry eyes sought to steal upon 
the beavers. So always as they worked, 
especially when on the land, they were 
prepared to rush for safety at the first 
warning. Never for a minute did they 
cease to keep guard, testing every breath 
of air with wonderfully sensitive noses, 
and listening with hardly less wonderful 
ears. On nose and ears the safety of a 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER £1 

beaver almost wholly depends, his eyes 
being rather weak. 

Once Tommy stopped in his labor of 
cutting a big tree so that he might rest 
for a minute or two. On the very edge 
of the little clearing they had made, the 
moonlight fell on an old weather-gray 
log. Tommy stared at it a moment, 
then resumed his work. A few minutes 
later he chanced to look at it again. 
Somehow it seemed nearer than before. 
He stared long and hard, but it lay as 
motionless as a log should. Once more 
he resumed his work, but hardly had he 
done so when there was the warning 
thud of a neighbor’s tail. Instantly 
Tommy scrambled for the water; and 
even as he did so, he caught a glimpse 
of that gray old log coming to life and 


52 tommy’s change of heart 

leaping toward him. The instant he 
reached the water, he dived. 

“What was it?” he whispered trem- 
ulously when, in the safety of the house, 
he touched noses with one of his neigh- 
bors. 

“Tufty the Lynx,” was the reply. “I 
smelled him and gave the warning. T 
guess it was lucky for you that I did.” 

“I guess it was,” returned Tommy, 
with a shiver. 

Another time, a huge black form 
sprang from the blacker shadows and 
caught one of the workers. It was a 
bear. Sometimes there would be three 
or four alarms in a night. So Tommy 
learned that the harvesting of the food 
supply was the most dangerous labor 
of all, for it took him farthest from the 
safety of the water. 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 53 

At last this work was completed, and 
Tommy wondered if now they were to 
rest and idle away their time. But he 
did not have to wonder long. The old 
leader was not yet content, but must 
have the pond deepened all along the 
foot of the dam and around the en- 
trances to the house. So now they once 
more turned to digging, this time under 
water, bringing the mud up to put on the 
dam or the house, some working on one 
and some on the other. 

The nights grew crisp and there was 
a hint of frost. It was then that they 
turned all their attention to the house, 
plastering it all over with mud save at 
the very top, where the air-holes were. 
So thick did they lay it on that only here 
and there did the end of a stick project. 
Then came a night which made a thin 


54 TOMMY'S CHANGE OF HEART 
sheet of ice over the pond and froze the 
mud-plaster of the house. The cold in- 
creased. The ice grew thicker and the 
walls of the house so hard that not even 
the powerful claws of a bear could tear 
them open. It was for this that that 
last coating of mud had been put on. 

The nights of labor were over at last. 
There was nothing to do now but sleep 
on the soft beds of grass or of thin splin- 
ters of wood, for some had preferred to 
make beds of this latter material. For 
exercise they swam in the quiet waters 
under the ice. When they were hun- 
gry, they slipped down through the 
water tunnel and out into the pond, 
swam to the food-pile, got a stick, and 
took it back to the house, where they 
gnawed the bark off in comfort and at 
their ease, afterward carrying the bare 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER $ $ 

stick down to the dam for use in making 
repairs. 

Once they discovered that the water 
was rapidly lowering. This meant a 
break in the dam. A trapper had cut a 
hole in it and cunningly placed a trap 
there. But the wise old leader knew 
all about traps, and the breach was re- 
paired without harm to any one. Some- 
times a lynx or a wolf would come across 
the ice and prowl around the house, snif- 
fing hungrily as the smell of beaver came 
out through the tiny air-holes in the roof. 
But the thick walls were like rock, and 
Tommy and his companions never even 
knew of these hungry prowlers. Peace, 
safety, and contentment reigned under 
the ice of the beaver-pond. 

But at last there came a day when a 
great noise reverberated under the ice. 


56 tommy’s change of heart 
They knew not what it meant and lay 
shivering with fear. A long time they 
lay even after it had ceased. Then one 
of the boldest went for a stick from the 
food-pile. He did not return. An- 
other went and he did not return. 
Finally Tommy went, for he was hun- 
gry. When he reached the food-pile, 
he found that it had been fenced in with 
stout poles driven down into the mud 
through holes cut in the ice. It was the 
cutting of these holes that had made 
the dreadful noise, though Tommy 
didn’t know it. 

Around the food-pile he swam until 
at last he found an opening between the 
poles of the fence. He hesitated. Then 
because he was very hungry, he entered. 
Hardly was he inside when another pole 
was thrust down through a hole behind 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 57 

him, and he was a prisoner under the 
ice inside that hateful fence. 

Now a beaver must have air, and there 
was no air there and no way of getting 
any. Up above on the ice an Indian 
squatted. He knew just what was hap- 
pening down below and he grinned. 
Beside him lay the two beavers who 
had preceded Tommy, drowned. Now 
Tommy was drowning. His lungs felt 
as if they would burst. Dully he real- 
ized that this was the end. As long as 
he could, he held his breath and then — 
Tommy came to himself with a fright- 
ened jump. 

He was sitting on the old wishing- 
stone, and before him stretched the 
Green Meadows, joyous with happy life. 
He wasn’t a beaver at all, but he knew 
that he had been a beaver, that he had 


58 tommy’s change of heart 
lived the life of Paddy the Beaver. He 
could remember every detail of it, and 
he shuddered as he thought of those last 
dreadful minutes at the food-pile when 
he had felt himself drowning helplessly. 
Then the wonder of what he had learned 
grew upon him. 

“Why,” he exclaimed, “a beaver is an 
engineer, a lumberman, a dredger, a 
builder, and a mason ! He’s wonderful. 
He’s the most wonderful animal in all 
the world!” His face clouded. “Why 
can’t people leave him alone?” he ex- 
ploded. “A man that will trap and kill 
one of those little chaps is worse than a 
lynx or a wolf. Yes, sir, that’s what 
he is! Those creatures kill to eat, but 
man kills just for the few dollars 
Paddy’s fur coat will bring. When I 
grow up, I’m going to do something to 


TOMMY BECOMES A FURRY ENGINEER 59 

Stop trapping and killing. Yes, sir, 
that’s what I’m going to do !” 

Tommy got up and stretched. Then 
he started for home, and there was a 
thoughtful look on his freckled face. 
“Gee!” he exclaimed, “I’ve learned a 
pile this time. I didn’t know there was 
so much pleasure in just work before. I 
guess I won’t complain any more over 
what I have to do. I — I’m mighty glad 
I was a beaver for a little while, just for 
that.” 

And then, whistling, Tommy headed 
straight for the wood-pile and his ax. 
He had work to do, and he was glad 
of it. 


CHAPTER THREE 

WHY TOMMY TOOK UP ALL HIS TRAPS 

I F there was one thing that Tommy 
enjoyed above another, it was trap- 
ping. There were several reasons 
why he enjoyed it. In the first place, it 
took him out of doors with something 
definite to do. He loved the meadows 
and the woods and the pastures, and all 
the beauties of them with which Old 
Mother Nature is so lavish. 

He loved to tramp along the Laugh- 
ing Brook and around the Smiling Pool. 
Always, no matter what the time of the 
year, there was something interesting to 
see. Now it was a flower new to him, 
or a bird that he had not seen before 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 6l 

Again it was a fleeting glimpse of one of 
the shy, fleet-footed little people who 
wear coats of fur. He liked these best 
of all because they were the hardest to 
surprise and study in their home life. 
And that was one reason why he en- 
en joyed trapping so much. It was 
matching his wits against their wits. 
And one other reason was the money 
which he got for the pelts. 

So Tommy was glad when the late 
fall came and it was time to set traps and 
every morning make his rounds to see 
what he had caught. In the coldest part 
of the winter, when the snow was deep 
and the ice was thick, he stopped trap- 
ping, but he began again with the be- 
ginning of spring when the Laughing 
Brook was once more set free and the 
Smiling Pool no longer locked in icy fet- 


02 tommy’s change of heart 
ters. It was then that the muskrats and 
the minks became most active, and their 
fur coats were still at their best. You 
see the more active they were, the more 
likely they were to step into one of his 
traps. 

On this particular afternoon, after 
school, Tommy had come down to the 
Smiling Pool to set a few extra traps for 
muskrats. The trapping season, that is 
the season when the fur was still at its 
best, or “prime,” as the fur dealers call 
it, would soon be at an end. He had 
set a trap on an old log which lay partly 
in and partly out of the water. He 
knew that the muskrats used this old 
log to sun themselves because one had 
plunged off it as he came up. So he set 
a trap just under water on the end of 
the old log where the first muskrat who 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 63 
tried to climb out there would step in it. 

‘Til get one here, as sure as shooting,” 
said Tommy. 

Then he found a little grassy tussock, 
and he knew by the matted-down grass 
that it was a favorite resting place for 
muskrats. Here he set another trap 
and left some slices of carrot as bait. 

By the merest accident, he found a 
hole in the bank and, from the look of 
it, he felt sure that it had been made by 
one of the furry little animals he wanted 
to catch. Right at the very entrance 
he set another trap, and artfully covered 
it with water-soaked leaves from the 
bottom of the Smiling Pool so that it 
could not be seen. 

“I’d like to see anything go in or out 
of that hole without getting caught,” 
said he, with an air of being mightily 


64 tommy’s change of heart 

tickled with himself and his own 
smartness. 

So he went on until he had set all his 
traps, and all the time he was very 
happy. Spring had come, and it is 
everybody’s right to be happy in the 
spring. He heard the joyous notes of 
the first birds who had come on the lag- 
ging heels of winter from the warm 
southland, and they made him want to 
sing, himself. Everything about him 
proclaimed new life and the joy of liv- 
ing. He could feel it in the very air. 
It was good to be alive. 

After the last trap had been put in 
place, he sat down on an old log to rest 
for a few minutes and enjoy the scene. 
The Smiling Pool was as smooth as pol- 
ished glass. Presently, as Tommy sat 
there without moving, two little silver 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 65 

lines, which met and formed a V, started 
on the farther side of the Smiling 
Pool and came straight toward him. 
Tommy knew what those silver lines 
were. They were the wake made by a 
swimming muskrat. 

“My! I wish Fd brought my gun!” 
thought Tommy. “It’s queer how a fel- 
low always sees things when he hasn’t 
a gun, and never sees them when he 
has.” 

He could perceive the little brown 
head very plainly now, and, as it drew 
nearer, he could distinguish the outline 
of the body just under the surface, and 
back of that the queer, rubbery, flattened 
tail set edge-wise in the water and mov- 
ing rapidly from side to side. 

“It’s a regular propeller,” thought 
Tommy, “and he certainly knows how 


66 tommy’s change of heart 
to use it. It sculls him right along. If 
he should lose that, he sure would be up 
against it!” 

Tommy moved ever so little, so as to 
get a better view. Instantly there was 
a sharp slap of the tail on the water, a 
plunge, and only a ripple to show that 
a second before there had been a swim- 
mer there. T wo other slaps and plunges 
sounded from distant parts of the Smil- 
ing Pool and Tommy knew that he 
would see no more muskrats unless he 
sat very still for a long time. Slowly 
he got to his feet, stretched, and then 
started for home. All the way across 
the Green Meadows he kept thinking 
of that little glimpse of muskrat life he 
had had, and for the first time in his life 
he began to think that there might be 
something more interesting about a 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 67 
muskrat than his fur coat. Always be- 
fore, he had thought of a muskrat as 
simply a rat, a big, overgrown cousin 
of the pests that stole the grain in the 
hen-house, and against whom every 
man’s hand is turned, as it should be. 

But somehow that little glimpse of 
Jerry Muskrat at home had awakened 
a new interest. It struck him quite sud- 
denly that it was a very wonderful thing 
that an animal breathing air, just as he 
did himself, could be so at home in the 
water and disappear so suddenly and 
completely. 

“It must be fine to be able to swim 
like that!” thought Tommy as he sat 
down on the wishing-stone, and looked 
back across the Green Meadows to the 
S mi ling Pool. “I wonder what he does 
down there under water. Now I think 


68 tommy’s change of heart 
of it, I don’t know much about him ex- 
cept that he is the only rat with a fur 
that is good for anything. If it wasn’t 
for that fur coat of his, I don’t suppose 
anybody would bother him. What a 
snap he would have then! I guess he 
has no end of fun in the summer, with 
nothing to worry about and plenty to 
eat, and always cool and comfortable 
no matter what the weather ! 

“What gets me is how he spends the 
winter when everything is frozen. He 
must be under the ice for weeks. I won- 
der if he sleeps the way the woodchuck 
does. I suppose I can find out just by 
wishing, seeing that I’m sitting right 
here on the old wishing-stone. It would 
be a funny thing to do to wish myself 
into a rat. It doesn’t seem as if there 
could be anything very interesting about 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 69 
the life of anything so stupid-looking 
as a muskrat, and yet I’ve thought the 
same thing about some other creatures 
and found I was wrong.” 

He gazed dreamily down toward the 
Smiling Pool, and, the longer he looked, 
the more he wondered what it would be 
like to live there. At last, almost with- 
out knowing it, he said the magic words. 

“I — I wish I were a muskrat!” he 
murmured. 

Tommy was in the Smiling Pool. He 
was little and fur-coated, with a funny 
little flattened tail. And he really had 
two coats, the outer of long hairs, a sort 
of water-proof, while the under coat was 
soft and fine and meant to keep him 
warm. And, though he was swimming 
with only his head out of water, he 
wasn’t wet at all. 


70 tommy's change of heart 

It was a beautiful summer evening, 
just at the hour of twilight, and the 
Smiling Pool was very beautiful, the 
most beautiful place that ever was. At 
least it seemed so to Tommy. In the 
bulrushes a few little feathered folks 
were still twittering sleepily. Over on 
his big green lily-pad Grandfather Frog 
was leading the frog chorus in a great 
deep voice. From various places in the 
Smiling Pool came sharp little squeaks 
and faint splashes. It was playtime for 
little muskrats and visiting time for big 
muskrats. 

An odor of musk filled the air and was 
very pleasant to Tommy as he sniffed 
and sniffed. He was playing hide-and- 
seek and tag with other little muskrats 
of his own age, and not one of them had 
a care in all the world. Far away, 



It was playtime for little muskrats 



Tommy went calling on his neighbors 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 71 

Hooty the Owl was sending forth his 
fierce hunting call, but no one in the 
Smiling Pool took the least notice of 
it. By and by it ceased. 

Tommy was chasing one of his play- 
mates in and out among the bulrushes. 
Twice they had been warned by a wise 
old muskrat not to go beyond the line 
of bulrushes into the open water. But 
little folks are forgetful, especially 
when playing. Tommy’s little play- 
mate forgot. In the excitement of get- 
ting away from Tommy he swam out 
where the first little star was reflected 
in the Smiling Pool. A shadow passed 
over Tommy and hardly had it passed 
when there was a sharp slap of some- 
thing striking the water. 

Tommy knew what it was. He knew 
that it was the tail of some watchful old 


72 tommy’s change of heart 
muskrat who had discovered danger, and 
that it meant “dive at once.” Tommy 
dived. He didn’t wait to learn what 
the danger was, but promptly filled his 
little lungs with air, plunged under 
water and swam as far as he could. 
When he just had to come up for more 
air, he put only his nose out and this in 
the darkest place he knew of among the 
rushes. 

There he remained perfectly still. 
Down inside, his heart was thumping 
with fear of he knew not what. There 
wasn’t a sound to be heard around the 
Smiling Pool. It was as still as if there 
was no living thing there. After what 
seemed like a long, long time, the deep 
voice of Grandfather Frog boomed out, 
and then the squeak of the old muskrat 
who had given the alarm told all within 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 73 

hearing that all was safe again. At 
once, all fear left Tommy and he swam 
to find his playmates. 

“What was it?” he asked one of them. 

“Hooty, the Owl,” was the reply. 
“Didn’t you see him?” 

“I saw a shadow,” replied Tommy. 

“That was Hooty. I wonder if he 
caught anybody,” returned the other. 

Tommy didn’t say anything, but he 
thought of the playmate who forgot and 
swam out beyond the bulrushes, and, 
when he had hunted and hunted and 
couldn’t find him, he knew that Hooty 
had not visited the Smiling Pool for 
nothing. 

So Tommy learned the great lesson of 
never being careless and forgetting. 
Later that same night, as he sat on a 
little muddy platform on the edge of the 


74 tommy’s change of heart 

water eating a delicious tender young 
lily-root, there came that same warning 
slap of a tail on the water. Tommy 
didn’t wait for even one more nibble, 
but plunged into the deepest water and 
hid as before. This time when the sig- 
nal that all was well was given he 
learned that some one with sharper ears 
than his had heard the footsteps of a fox 
on the shore and had given the warning 
just in the nick of time. 

Four things Tommy learned that 
night. First, that, safe and beautiful 
as it seems, the Smiling Pool is not free 
from dangers for little muskrats; second, 
that forgetfulness means a short life; 
third, that to dive at the instant a dan- 
ger-signal is sounded and inquire later 
what the danger was is the only sure 
way of being safe; and fourth, that it is 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 75 
the duty of every muskrat who detects 
danger to warn every other muskrat. 

Though he didn’t realize it then, this 
last was the most important lesson of 
all. It was the great lesson that human 
beings have been so long learning, and 
which many have not learned yet, that, 
just in proportion as each one looks out 
for the welfare of his neighbors, he is 
himself better off. Instead of having 
just one pair of little eyes and one pair 
of keen little ears to guard him against 
danger Tommy had many pairs of little 
eyes and little ears keeping guard all 
the time, some of them better than his 
own. 

Eating, sleeping, and playing, and of 
course watching out for danger, were 
all that Tommy had to think about 
through the long lazy summer, and he 


76 tommy’s change of heart 
grew and grew and grew until he was 
as big as the biggest muskrats in the 
Smiling Pool, and could come and go as 
he pleased. 

There was less to fear now from 
Hooty the Owl, for Hooty prefers ten- 
der young muskrats. He had learned 
all about the ways of Reddy Fox, and 
feared him not at all. He had learned 
where the best lily-roots grow, and how 
to find and open mussels, those clams 
which live in fresh water. He had a 
favorite old log, half in the water, to 
which he brought these to open them 
and eat them, and more than one fight 
did he have before his neighbors learned 
to respect this as his. He had explored 
all the shore of the Smiling Pool and 
knew every hole in the banks. He had 
even been some distance up the Laugh- 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 77 

ing Brook. Life was very joyous. 

But, as summer began to wane, the 
days to grow shorter and the nights 
longer, he discovered that playtime was 
over. At least, all his friends and 
neighbors seemed to think so, for they 
were very, very busy. Something inside 
told him that it was time, high time, that 
he also went to work. Cold weather 
was coming and he must be prepared. 
For one thing he must have a comfort- 
able home, and the only way to get one 
was to make one for himself. 

Of course this meant work, but some- 
how Tommy felt that he would feel hap- 
pier if he did work. He was tired of 
doing nothing in particular. In his 
roamings about, he had seen many musk- 
rat homes, some of them old and desert- 
ed, and some of them visited while the 


78 tommy’s change of heart 

owners were away. He knew just what 
a first-class house should be like. It 
should be high enough in the bank to be 
above water at all times, even during 
the spring floods, and it should be 
reached by a passage the entrance to 
which should at all times be under water, 
even in the driest season. 

On the bank of the Smiling Pool grew 
a tree, and the spreading roots came 
down so that some of them were in the 
Smiling Pool itself. Under them, 
Tommy made the entrance to his burrow. 
The roots hid it. At first the digging 
was easy, for the earth was little more 
than mud; but, as the passage slanted 
up, the digging became harder. Still 
he kept at it. Two or three times he 
stopped and decided that he had gone 
far enough, then changed his mind and 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 79 

kept on. At last he found a place to 
suit him, and there he made a snug cham- 
ber not very far under the grass-roots. 

When he had finished it, he was very 
proud of it. He told Jerry Muskrat 
about it. “Have you more than one en- 
trance to it?” asked Jerry. 

“No,” replied Tommy, “it was hard 
enough work to make that one.” 

Jerry turned up his nose. “That 
wouldn’t do for me,” he declared. “A 
house with only one entrance is nothing 
but a trap. Supposing a fierce old mink 
should find that doorway while you were 
inside; what would you do then?” 

Tommy hadn’t thought of that. Once 
more he went to work, and made an- 
other long tunnel leading up to that 
snug chamber; and then, perhaps be- 
cause he had got the habit, he made a 


80 tommy’s change of heart 
third. From one of these tunnels he 
even made a short branch with a care- 
fully hidden opening right out on the 
meadow, for Tommy liked to prowl 
around on land once in a while. The 
chamber he lined with grass and old 
rushes until he had a very comfortable 
bed. 

With all this hard work completed, 
you would have supposed that Tommy 
would have been satisfied, wouldn’t 
you? But he wasn’t. He found that 
some of his neighbors were building 
houses of a wholly different kind, and 
right away he decided that he must have 
one too. So he chose a place where the 
water was shallow, and not too far from 
the place where the water-lilies grew; 
and there among the bulrushes he once 
more set to work. 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 8l 

This time he dug out the mud and 
the roots of the rushes, piling them 
around him until he was in a sort of lit- 
tle well. From this he dug several tun- 
nels leading to the deep water where he 
could be sure that the entrance never 
would be frozen over. The mud and 
sods he piled up until they came above 
the water, and then he made a platform 
of rushes and mud with an opening in 
the middle down into that well from 
which his tunnels led. On this plat- 
form he built a great mound of rushes, 
and grass, and even twigs, all wattled 
together. Some of them he had to bring 
clear from the other side of the Smiling 
Pool. 

And, as he built that mound, he made 
a nice large room in the middle, biting 
off all the ends of sticks and rushes 


82 tommy’s change of heart 
which happened to be in the way. 
When he had made that room to suit 
him, he made a comfortable bed there, 
just as he had in the house in the bank. 
Then he built the walls very thick, add- 
ing rushes and mud and sods all around 
except on the very top. There he left 
the roof thinner, with little spaces for 
the air to get in, for of course he must 
have fresh air to breathe. 

When at last the new house was fin- 
ished, he was very proud of it. There 
were two rooms, the upper one with its 
comfortable bed quite above the water, 
and the lower one wholly under water, 
connected with the former by a little 
doorway. The only way of getting 
into the house was by one of his tunnels 
to the lower room. When all was done, 
an old muskrat looked it over and told 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 83 
him that he had done very well for a 
young fellow, which made Tommy feel 
very important. 

The weather was growing cool now, 
so Tommy laid up some supplies in both 
houses and then spent his spare time 
calling on his neighbors. By this time 
he had grown a fine thick coat and didn’t 
mind at all how cold it grew. In fact 
he liked the cold weather. 

It was about this time that he had a 
dreadful experience. He climbed out 
one evening on his favorite log to open 
and eat a mussel he had found. There 
was a snap, and something caught him 
by the tail and pinched dreadfully. He 
pulled with all his might, but the dread- 
ful thing wouldn’t let go. He turned 
and bit at it, but it was harder than his 


84 tommy’s change of heart 

teeth and gnaw as he would he could 
make no impression on it. 

A great terror filled his heart and he 
struggled and pulled, heedless of the 
pain, until he was too tired to struggle 
longer. He just had to lie still. 
After a while, when he had regained his 
strength, he struggled again. This 
time he felt his tail give a little. A 
neighbor swam over to see what all the 
fuss was about. 

“It’s a trap,” said he. “It’s lucky you 
are not caught by a foot instead of by 
the tail. If you keep on pulling you 
may get free. I did once.” 

This gave Tommy new hope and he 
struggled harder than ever. At last he 
fell headlong into the water. The 
cruel steel jaws had not been able to 
keep his tapered tail from slipping be- 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 85 

tween them. He was free, but oh, so 
frightened! 

After that Tommy grew wise. He 
never went ashore without first examin- 
ing the place for one of those dreadful 
traps, and he found more than one. It 
got so that he gave up all his favorite 
places and made new ones. Once he 
found one of his friends caught by a 
forefoot and he was actually cutting his 
foot off with his sharp teeth. It was 
dreadful, but it was the only way of 
saving his life. 

Those were sad and terrible times 
around the Smiling Pool and along the 
Laughing Brook for the people in fur, 
but there didn’t seem to be anything 
they could do about it except to everlast- 
ingly watch out. 

One morning Tommy awoke to find 


86 tommy’s change of heart 
the Smiling Pool covered with ice. He 
liked it. A sense of great peace fell on 
the Smiling Pool. There was no more 
danger from traps except around certain 
spring holes, and there was no need of 
going there. Much of the time Tommy 
slept in that fine house of rushes and 
mud. Its walls had frozen solid and it 
was as comfortable as could be imag- 
ined. A couple of friends who had no 
house stayed with him. 

When they were hungry all they had 
to do was to drop down into the tunnel 
leading to deep water and so out into 
the Smiling Pool under the ice, dig up 
a lily-root and swim back and eat it in 
comfort inside the house. If they got 
short of air while swimming under the 
ice they were almost sure to find little 
air spaces under the edge of the banks. 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 87 
No matter how bitter the cold or how 
wild the storm above the ice, — below it 
was always calm and the temperature 
never changed. 

Sometimes Tommy went over to his 
house in the bank. Once, while he was 
there, a bloodthirsty mink followed him. 
Tommy heard him coming and escaped 
down one of the other passages. Then 
he was thankful indeed that he had made 
more than one. But this was his only 
adventure all the long winter. At last 
spring came, the ice disappeared and the 
water rose in the Laughing Brook until 
it was above the banks, and in the Smil- 
ing Pool until Tommy’s house was near- 
ly under water. Then he moved over 
to his house in the bank and was com- 
fortable again. 

One day he swam over to his house 


88 tommy’s change of heart 

of rushes and climbed up on the top. 
He had no thought of danger there and 
he was heedless. Snap! A trap set 
right on top of the house held him fast 
by one leg. A mist swam before his 
eyes as he looked across the Green Mead- 
ows and heard the joyous carol of Wel- 
come Robin. Why, oh why, should 
there be such misery in the midst of so 
much joy"? He was trying to make up 
his mind to lose his foot when, far up 
on the edge of the meadows, he saw an 
old gray rock. Somehow the sight of 
it brought a vague sense of comfort to 
him. He strained his eyes to see it bet- 
ter and — Tommy was just himself, 
rubbing his eyes as he sat on the old 
wishing-stone. 

“ — I was just going to cut my foot 
off. Ugh!” he shuddered. “Two or 


WHY TOMMY TOOK UP HIS TRAPS 89 

three times I’ve found a foot in my traps, 
but I never realized before what it really 
meant. Why, those little chaps had 
more nerve than I’ll ever have!” 

He gazed thoughtfully down toward 
the Smiling Pool. Then suddenly he 
sprang to his feet and began to run to- 
ward it. “It’s too late to take all of 
’em up to-night,” he muttered, “but I’ll 
take what I can, and to-morrow morn- 
ing I’ll take up the rest. I hope noth- 
ing will get caught in ’em. I never 
knew before how dreadful it must be to 
be caught in a trap. I’ll never set an- 
other trap as long as I live, so there! 

“Why, Jerry Muskrat is almost as 
wonderful as Paddy the Beaver, and he 
doesn’t do anything a bit of harm. I 
didn’t know he was so interesting. He 
hasn’t as many troubles as some, but he 


90 tommy’s change of heart 

has enough, I guess, without me adding 
to them. Say, that’s a great life he 
leads ! If it wasn’t for traps, it wouldn’t 
be half bad to be a muskrat. Of course 
it’s better to be a boy, but I can tell you 
right now I’m going to be a better boy 
— less thoughtless and cruel. Jerry 
Muskrat, you haven’t anything more to 
fear from me, not a thing! I take off 
my hat to you for a busy little worker, 
and for having more nerve than any boy 
I know.” 

And never again did Tommy set a 
trap for little wild folk. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


TOMMY LEARNS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE 
A BEAR 

T OMMY'S thoughts were stray- 
ing. Somehow they were stray- 
ing most of the time these days. 
They had been, ever since that day when 
he had wished himself into a beaver. 
He dreamed of the Great Woods where 
rivers have their beginnings in gurgling 
brooks, and great lakes reflect moss-gray 
giants of the forest; where the beavers 
still ply their many trades unharmed 
by man, the deer follow paths of their 
own making, the otters make merry on 
their slippery-slides, the lynx pass 
through the dark shadows, themselves 


92 tommy’s change of heart 
but grayer shadows, and bears go fish- 
ing, gather berries, and hunt the stored 
sweets of the bees. In short, the spell 
of the Great Woods, the wilderness un- 
marred by the hand of man, was upon 
Tommy. 

Eagerly he read all that he could find 
about the feathered and furred folk who 
dwell there, and the longing to know 
more about them and their ways, to 
learn these things for himself, grew and 
grew. He wanted to hear things with 
his own ears and see things with his own 
eyes. 

Sometimes he went over to the Green 
Forest near his home and played that it 
was the Great Woods and that he was a 
mighty hunter. Then Happy Jack the 
Gray Squirrel became a fierce-eyed, 
tufted-eared, bob-tailed lynx, saucy 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 93 

Chatterer the Red Squirrel became a 
crafty fisher, the footprints of Reddy 
Fox grew in size to those of a wolf, Peter 
Rabbit was transformed into his cousin 
of the north, Jumper the Hare, and a 
certain old black stump was Buster 
Bear. 

But it was only once in a while that 
Tommy played the hunter. Somehow, 
since he had learned so many things 
about the lives of the little feathered 
and furred people about him, he cared 
less and less about hunting them. So 
most often, when the Green Forest be- 
came the Great Woods, he was Buster 
Bear. That was more fun than being a 
hunter, much more fun. There was 
only one drawback — he didn’t know as 
much about Buster Bear and his ways 
as he wished he did. 


94 tommy’s change of heart 

So now, as he trudged along towards 
the pasture to drive home the cows for 
the evening milking, his thoughts were 
straying to the Great Woods and Bus- 
ter Bear. As he came to the old wish- 
ing-stone he glanced up at the sun. 
There was no need to hurry. He would 
have plenty of time to sit down there a 
while. So down he sat on the big gray 
rock and his thoughts went straying, 
straying deep into the Great Woods far 
from cows and milking and the woodpile 
just beyond the kitchen door. Bears 
never had to chop wood. 

“I wish,” said Tommy dreamily, “that 
I were a bear.” 

That was all, just a little spoken 
wish, but Tommy was no longer a 
dreamy boy with evening chores yet to 
be done. He was a little black furry 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 95 

animal, not unlike an overgrown puppy, 
following at the heels of a great gaunt 
black bear. In short, Tommy was a 
bear himself. All about him was the 
beautiful wilderness, the Great Woods 
of his boyish dreams. Just behind him 
was another little bear, his twin sister, 
and the big bear was their mother. 

Presently they came to an opening 
where there were no trees, but a tangle 
of brush. Years before, fire had swept 
through there, though Tommy knew 
nothing about that. In fact, Tommy 
knew little about anything as yet save 
that it was good, oh, so good, to be alive. 
On the edge of this opening Mother Bear 
paused and sat up on her haunches while 
she sniffed the air. The two little bears 
did the same thing. They didn’t know 
why, but they did it because Mother 


g6 tommy's change of heart 
Bear did. Then she dropped to all fours 
and told them to remain right where 
they were until she called them. They 
watched her disappear in the brush and 
waited impatiently. It seemed to them 
a very long time before they heard her 
call and saw her head above the bushes 
as she sat up, but really it was only a 
few minutes. Then they scampered to 
join her, each trying to be first. 

When they reached her, such a glad 
sight as greeted them ! All about were 
little bushes loaded with berries that 
seemed to have stolen their color from 
the sky. They were blueberries. With 
funny little squeals and grunts they 
stripped the berries from the bushes and 
ate and ate until they could eat no more. 
Then they wrestled with each other, and 
stood up on their hind legs and boxed 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 97 

until they were out of breath and glad 
to lie down for a rest while Mother Bear 
continued to stuff herself with berries. 

It was very beautiful there in the 
Great Woods, and the two little bears 
just bubbled over with high spirits. 
They played hide-and-seek behind 
stumps and trees. They played tag. 
They chased each other up tall trees. 
One would climb to the top of a tall 
stump, and the other would follow and 
try to knock the first one off. 

Sometimes both would tumble down 
and land with a thump that would knock 
the breath from their little bodies. The 
bumps would hurt sometimes and make 
them squeal. This would bring Mother 
Bear in a hurry to see what had hap- 
pened; and when she would find that 
no harm had come to them, she would 


98 tommy’s change of heart 
growl a warning and sometimes spank 
them for giving her a fright. 

But best of all they loved to wrestle 
and box, and, though they didn’t know 
it, they were learning something. They 
were learning to be quick in their move- 
ments. They were learning how to 
strike swiftly and how to dodge quite as 
swiftly. Once in a while they would 
stand and not try to dodge, but see who 
could stand the hardest blow. And 
once in a while, I am sorry to say, they 
quarreled and fought. Then Mother 
Bear would take a hand and cuff and 
spank them until they squalled. 

Very early they learned that Mother 
Bear was to be minded. Once she sent 
them up a tree and told them to stay 
there until she returned. Then she 
went off to investigate something which 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 99 

interested her. When she returned, the 
two little cubs were nowhere to be seen. 
They had grown tired of waiting for her 
to return and had come down to do a 
little investigating of their own. It 
didn’t take her long to find them. Oh, 
my, no! And when she did — well, all 
the neighbors knew that two little cubs 
had disobeyed, and two little cubs were 
sure, very sure, that they never would do 
so again. Tommy was one. 

At first, during those lovely summer 
days, Mother Bear never went far from 
them. You see, when they were very 
small, there were dangers. Oh, yes, 
there are dangers even for little bears. 
Tufty the Lynx would have liked noth- 
ing better than a meal of tender young 
bear, and Howler the Wolf would have 
rejoiced in an opportunity to snatch one 


100 tommy’s change of heart 
of them without the risk of an encounter 
with Mother Bear. 

But Tommy and his sister grew fast, 
very fast. You see, there were so many 
good things to eat. Their mother dug 
for them the most delicious roots, tear- 
ing them from the ground with her great 
claws. It wasn’t long before they had 
learned to find them for themselves and 
to dig them where the earth was soft 
enough. Then there were berries, rasp- 
berries and blackberries and blueberies, 
all they wanted, to be had for the gather- 
ing. And by way of variety there were 
occasional fish. 

Tommy as a boy was very fond ot 
fishing. As a bear he was quite as fond 
of it. On his first fishing-trip he got a 
wetting, a spanking, and no fish. It 
happened this way : Mother Bear had led 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 101 
them one moonlight night to a brook 
they never had visited before. Up the 
brook she led them until they reached 
a place where it was broad and shallow, 
the water gurgling and rippling over the 
stones and singing merrily. They were 
left in the brush on the edge of the brook 
where they could see and were warned to 
keep still and watch. Then Mother 
Bear stationed herself at a point where 
the water was just a wee bit deeper than 
elsewhere and ran a wee bit faster, for 
it had cut a little channel there. For a 
long time she sat motionless, a big black 
spot in the moonlight, which might have 
been a stump to eyes which had not seen 
her go there. 

Tommy wondered what it all meant. 
For a long time, at least it was a long 
time to Tommy, nothing happened. 


102 tommy’s change of heart 
The brook gurgled and sang and Mother 
Bear sat as still as the very rocks. 
Tommy began to get impatient. He 
was bubbling over with high spirits and 
sitting still was hard, very hard. 

Little by little he stole nearer to the 
water until he was on very edge right 
behind Mother Bear. Then he caught 
a splash down the brook. He looked 
in that direction but could see noth- 
ing. Then there was another splash. 
He saw a silvery line and then made out 
a moving form. There was something 
alive coming up the brook. He edged 
over a little farther to see better. 
There it was, coming nearer and nearer. 
Though he didn’t know it then, it was 
a big trout working its way up the brook 
to the spring-holes higher up where the 
water was deep and cold. 


/ 



For a long time Mother Bear sat motionless 




Another shooting pain in one ear brought 
another squeal 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR IO3 

In the shallowest places the fish was 
sometimes half out of water. It was 
making straight for the little channel 
where Mother Bear sat. Nearer it came. 
Suddenly Mother Bear moved. Like 
lightning one of her big paws struck 
down and under, scooping the trout 
out and sending it flying towards the 
shore. 

Alas for Tommy! He was directly 
in the way. The fish hit him full in the 
face, fell back in the water, wriggled and 
jumped frantically — and was gone. 
Tommy was so startled that he gave a 
frightened little whimper. And then a 
big black paw descended and sent him 
rolling over and over in the water. 
Squalling lustily, wet, frightened and 
miserable, Tommy scrambled to his feet 


104 tommy’s change of heart 
and bolted for the shore where he hid 
in the brush. 

“I didn’t mean to!” he kept whimper- 
ing as he watched Mother Bear return 
to her fishing. Presently another trout 
came along and was sent flying up on 
the shore. Then Tommy watched his 
obedient sister enjoy a feast while he 
got not so much as a taste. 

After that they often went fishing on 
moonlight nights. Tommy had learned 
his lesson and knew that fish were the 
reward of patience, and it was not long 
before he was permitted to fish for him- 
self. 

Sometimes they went frogging along 
the marshy shores of a little pond. This 
was even more fun than fishing. It was 
great sport to locate a big frog by the 
sound of his deep bass voice and then 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 105 
softly steal up and cut a “chugarum” 
short, right in the middle. Then when 
he had eaten his fill, it was just as much 
fun to keep on hunting them just to see 
them plunge with long frightened leaps 
into the water. It tickled Tommy im- 
mensely, and he would hunt them by the 
hour just for this. 

One day Mother Bear led them to an 
old dead tree half rotted away at the 
bottom. While they sat and looked on 
in round-eyed wonder, she tore at the rot- 
ten wood with her great claws. Almost 
at once the air about her was full of in- 
sects humming angrily. Tommy drew 
nearer. A sharp pain on the end of his 
nose made him jump and squeal. An- 
other shooting pain in one ear brought 
another squeal and he slapped at the 
side of his head. One of those hum- 


106 tommy’s change of heart 
ming insects dropped at his feet. It 
must be that it had had something to 
do with that pain. 

Tommy beat a retreat into the brush. 
But Mother Bear kept on clawing at the 
tree, growling and whining and stopping 
now and then to slap at the insects about 
her. By and by the tree fell with a 
crash. It partly split when it struck the 
ground. Then Mother Bear put her great 
claws into the crack and tore the tree 
open, for you know she was very strong. 
Tommy caught a whiff of something 
that made his mouth water. Never in 
all his short life had he smelled any- 
thing so delicious. He forgot all about 
the pain in his nose and his ear and came 
out of his hiding-place. Mother Bear 
thrust a great paw into the tree and tore 
out a piece of something yellow and 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR IO7 

dripping and tossed it in Tommy's di- 
rection. 

There were a lot of those insects 
crawling over it, but Tommy didn't 
mind. The smell of it told him that it 
must be the best thing that ever was, 
better than berries, or fish, or frogs, or 
roots. And with the first taste he knew 
that his nose had told the truth. It was 
honey! It didn’t take Tommy a min- 
ute to gobble up honey, comb, bees and 
all. Then, heedless of stings, he joined 
Mother Bear. What were a few stings 
compared to such delicious sweets? So 
he learned that hollow trees are some- 
times of interest to bears. They ate and 
ate until Tommy's little stomach was 
swelled out like a little balloon. Then 
they rolled on the ground to crush the 
bees clinging to their fur, after which 


108 tommy’s change of heart 
Mother Bear led them to a muddy place 
on the shore of a little pond, and the cool 
mud took out the fire of the stings. 
Later, Tommy learned that not all bee- 
trees could be pulled down in this way, 
but that sometimes they must be climbed 
and ripped open with the claws of one 
paw while he held on with the other and 
endured the stings of the bees as best 
he could. But the honey was always 
worth all it cost to get. 

Next to feasting on honey Tommy 
enjoyed most a meal of ants, particularly 
red ants; and this seems queer, because 
red ants are as sour as honey is sweet. 
But it was so. Any kind of ants were 
easier to find and to get than honey. 
The latter he had only once in a while, 
but ants he had every day. He found 
them, thousands of them, under and in 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 109 

rotting old logs and in decayed old 
stumps. He seldom passed an old log 
without trying to roll it over. If he 
succeeded, he was almost sure to find 
a frightened colony of ants rushing 
about frantically. A few sweeps of his 
long tongue, a smacking of his lips and 
he moved on. 

Sometimes he found grubs of fat 
beetles, and these, though not so good as 
the ants, were always acceptable on his 
bill of fare. And he dearly loved to 
hunt wood-mice. It was almost as much 
fun as fishing or frogging. 

So the long summer passed happily, 
and Tommy grew so fast that presently 
he became aware that not even Tufty 
the Lynx willingly crossed his path. 
He could go and come unafraid of any 
of the wilderness dwellers and forgot 


no tommy’s change of heart 
what fear was until a never-forgotten 
day in the early fall. 

He had followed Mother Bear to a 
certain place where late blueberries still 
clung to the bushes. As she reached the 
edge of the opening, she stopped short 
and lifted her nose, wrinkling the skin 
of it as she tested the air. Tommy did 
the same. He had great faith in what 
his nose could tell him. The wind 
brought to him now a strange smell un- 
like any he had known, an unpleasant 
smell. Somehow, he didn’t know why, 
it gave him a queer prickly feeling all 
over. 

He looked at Mother Bear. She was 
staring out into the blueberry patch, and 
her lips were drawn back in an ugly 
way, showing her great teeth. Tommy 
looked out in the berry-patch. There 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 111 

were two strange two-legged creatures, 
gathering berries. They were not 
nearly as big as Mother Bear and they 
didn’t look dangerous. He stared at 
them curiously. Then he turned to look 
at Mother Bear. She was stealing away 
so silently that not even a leaf rustled. 
She was afraid! 

Tommy followed her, taking care not 
to make the least sound. When they 
were at a safe distance, he asked what 
it meant. “Those were men,” growled 
Mother Bear deep down in her throat, 
“and that was the man-smell. When- 
ever you smell that, steal away. Men 
are the only creatures you have to fear; 
but whatever you do, keep away from 
them. They are dangerous.” 

After that, Tommy continually tested 
the air for the dreaded man-smell. Sev- 


112 tommy’s change of heart 

eral times he caught it. Once from a 
safe hiding-place he watched a fisherman 
and another time a party of campers, but 
he took care that they should not suspect 
that he was near. By late fall he was 
so big that he began to feel independent 
and to wander off by himself. Almost 
every day he would stand up to a tree, 
reach as far up as he could, and dig his 
claws into the bark to see how tall he 
was. 

With the falling of the beechnuts 
Tommy found a new and delicious food 
and stuffed himself. These days he 
roamed far and wide and explored all 
the country for miles around. He grew 
fat and, as the weather grew colder, his 
coat grew thicker. He learned much 
about his neighbors and their ways, and 
his sense of humor led him often to give 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 1 13 

them scares just for the fun of seeing 
them jump and run. 

With the coming of the first snow a 
strange desire to sleep stole over him. 
He found a great tree which had been 
torn up by the roots in some wind storm 
and about which smaller trees had 
fallen, making a great tangle. Under 
the upturned roots of the great tree was 
a hollow, and into this he scraped leaves 
and the branches of young balsams 
which he broke off. Thus he made a 
comfortable bed and with a sigh of con- 
tentment lay down to sleep. 

The snow fell and drifted over his 
bedroom, but he knew nothing of that. 
The cold winds, the bitter winds, swept 
through the wilderness, and the trees 
cracked with the cold, but Tommy slept 
on. Days slipped into weeks and weeks 


114 tommy’s change of heart 
into months and still he slept. He 
would not waken until gentle spring 
melted the snow unless — 

“Moo-oo!” 

Tommy’s eyes flew wide open. For 
a full minute he stared blinkeringly out 
over the Green Meadows. Then with a 
jump he came to his feet. “My gra- 
cious, it’s getting late, and those cows 
are wondering what has become of me !” 
he exclaimed. He hurried toward the 
pasture, breaking into a run, for it was 
milking-time. But his thoughts were 
far away. They were in the Great 
Woods. “I’ve been a bear!” he ex- 
claimed triumphantly, “and I know just 
how he lives and feels, and why he loves 
the Great Woods so. Of all the crea- 
tures I’ve been since I found out about 
the old wishing-stone, I’d rather be Bus- 


WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A BEAR 1 15 

ter Bear than any one, next to being 
just what I am. He has more fun than 
any one I know of and nothing and no- 
body to fear but man.” 

Tommy’s brow clouded for an instant. 
“It’s a shame,” he blurted out, “that 
every living thing is afraid of man! 
And — and I guess it’s his own fault. 
They needn’t ever be afraid of me. I 
can tell them that! That old wishing- 
stone has taught me a lot, and I am never 
going to forget how it feels to be hunted 
and afraid all the time.” 

And Tommy never has. 










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